Martin Evans

“A contributor to knowledge”; “a creator of impact”;  ”a giving citizen in the academic research community”: all are most certainly terms that describe Martin Evans. Martin Evans was not just a teacher, or a lecturer. He was also an inspiring research scholar whose research interest and research integrity was grounded first and foremost in making a contribution to knowledge in the fields of Direct and Interactive Marketing, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Research.

He published over 180 publications, in national and international journals, case studies and reports and 8 books. Many of his works are nationally recognised for their contribution, and their author was a multiple academic prize winner from the Academy of Marketing (AM), the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and the International Conference of Marketing Communications.

Martin also served on the editorial board of some of the UK’s leading national marketing journals: Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Communications, Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing and Journal of Database Marketing and was full editor of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour: An International Review.

His expertise, support and years of research experience contributed to the knowledge and learning of numerous colleagues, co-authors and doctoral students, hundreds of masters students and thousands of undergraduate students, both in and outside the class room, the office and traditional publication channels.

Martin’s research contribution though was not just limited to the academic community. He also engaged actively with the wider business and social community to share and co-create knowledge through research partnerships, committees and informing industry policy and regulation, especially in Direct and Interactive Marketing. He was a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and full members of the Marketing Research Society (MRS), the Federation of Direct and Electronic Marketing (FEDMA) and the Academy of Marketing (AM).

He was an inspiring research scholar, mentor, colleague, teacher and friend.

Dr. Kelly Page
Lecturer in Marketing & Strategy
Cardiff Business School.

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I thought very hard about this question, and reflected on the last 5-8 years of my academic career. I looked at who has inspired me in exploring knowledge, adoption and use of electronic technologies. The works I’ve read and reviewed range from the work of Charles Darwin on Evolutionary Science, the writings of Plato and Sir Francis Bacon on Form and Knowledge, Marshall McLuhan in his media philosophy of the 1960′s,  to more recent work of Innovation Theory by Everett Rogers and Technology Adoption by Fred Davis.

But if I think back to the early days of my research career, as an Honours research student in the mid 1990′s embarking on research about the impact of technology on Marketing philosophy, it would be the work of Prof. Donna Hoffman that really inspired and changed the way I viewed at not just technology, but also the socio-cultural implications/influences of technological developments.

Prof. Donna Hoffman

In the early stages of the research component of my honours degree at Griffith University Australia, I was given a article to read by my Professor of Internet Marketing, Prof. Ed Forrest. Ed was a visiting Academic in Australia from Florida, and established a programme on our schools graduate programme on Internet Marketing and Internet Marketing Research. A programme that for the mid-1990′s was cutting in edge in the critical discussions we had in the classroom about the role of technology in business and wider society. As a research student on the undergraduate programme, I took part in these discussions of Toffler, Media Determinism and Network Complexity.

However the article from these discussions that has remained integral to both my academic and commerical work since that day was an article published by Prof. Donna Hoffman in the highest ranked marketing journal – Journal of Marketing. It was co-authored with Prof. Thomas Novak and was entitled: Marketing in Hypermedia Computer Mediated Environments (HCME’s): Conceptual Foundations. It was this article that raised the critical enquiry in marketing about technology-mediated communications and for me, the acqusition and creation of knowledge about technology – given their complexity in technical design, and situational context of application and use.

Prof. Donna Hoffman award winning and Internationally recognised research set the tone for marketing enquiry into internet marketing and digital media management and as the founder of eLab, an online laboratory for consumer behavior research and the Co-Director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing, her work not only informs academic enquiry through publication in top marketing and management journals, but informs policy for commercialization and use of the Internet.

So my pledge for Ada Lovelace Day, is the work and approach to technology science of Prof. Donna Hoffman.

Twitter: @profhoff
Web: Sloan Centre of Internet Retailing

Smiles

Kelly

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The request came after I’d published an article about the  implications of social networking sites like Facebook for the marketing profession. So on 4th March 2009, I delivered a 2 hour public presentation entitled Getting Connected: Social Media and Marketing in a Networked Economy to an audience of 108.

The motivation for giving the talk was to more freely share some of the insights I’d learn’t over the years from case study and survey research of the implication social tools, technologies and channels are having for today’s marketers. The presentation gives a brief account of:

1. The properties of technologies to ground social media – Why is it different?
2. Types of social media – What are our options?
3. Three core learnings from Case Insights about using social media in marketing. These learning’s include to: Share value, Share control and Share real connections for effective marketing with social media.

The insights are drawn from the following Case examples:

• PKU.com
• Swansea Council | Twitter
• General Electric
• IAB UK | Twitter
• Comparethemeerkat.com
• E4 Skins | Myspace
• New York Islanders Blog Box
• Mentos Geyser Viral | YouTube
• Trevor Mentos Intern
• Facebook Applications
• Chris Moyles Social Web Campaign
• Wiggly Wigglers
• Wales 1000 Things

The slides from the presentation are provided below.

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They want community members to debate theatre, to see and comment on theatre, and what goes on behind the scenes.

So what better way then to start in the digital space – through an online social network http://www.nationalthreatrewales.org

Creating a Digital NTW Community Network

NTW teamed up with NativeHQ to build an online community based on a Ning Network to enable an ongoing dialogue and conversation around theatre in Wales. It is an open network, so everyone can be part of the community be it audiences, actors, artists, directors, writers and collaborators.

Visual Design: Using the visual design by Elfen, it is clean and fresh, looking like an unfinished typed manuscript in style. Dotted lines represent no set-boundaries. It is not overbearing in clutter or too polished – it is raw! Albeit the use of a very bold colour scheme.

Navigational Design: In functionality it is clean and easy to use. Simple and meaningful naming conventions enable simpe page traversal and function navigation and use.

Value Design: In human value it provides a number of key functions to bring the community together. Often at these sites people ask ‘what can I do?’

Here members of the community can create a profile and connect to, blog about, discuss with, comment on, and share information, video, photographic content. They can share and converse about their craft. It is their space to have a voice about English language theatre in Wales.

With already 167 members, the community site that is the National Theatre Wales poses to engage and challenge even the most avid theatre buff!

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Here is a list of ideas to keep the mystery (or creativity) in Electronic Marketing … or should I say the marketing in electronic marketing.

Marketing, after all is not just a management planning process, but a creative process based on ideas, not just the resources used to manage and implement these ideas.

1. Defy reason – make a decision for your product or brand based entirely on feelings and emotions (not data) …
2. Allow for the unexpected – play with social media such as a blog, FB group page etc for your brand and just see what happens …
3. Invite difference – post messages on twitter, comment on blogs and talk to strangers about your brand (not just folks in your company or contracted to work for you) …
4. Don’t just search – use the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ function on Google and think how the site you come across might be connected with your product/brand …
5. Enjoy and celebrate the unsettling feeling of not getting ‘it’ 100% right’ on your website … yes it is ok! Uncertainity, change, failure and imperfection are natural elements in life … just as they are in the use of technology in marketing, be it your website, social media campaign or just use of work email … enjoy the fact you still have 100 emails in your inbox …
6. Walk away from your computer, grab a piece of paper, some coloured pens and draw something … anything … to remind you that marketing is also about creativity …
7. Wonder at old technologies … the printing press, the telephone, the turntable, the cassette tape …
8. Don’t send that email … pick up the phone, walk down the corridor and have a conversation, a coffee or just hi …
9. Spend a day with a child or teenager having fun and ask them to show you how they see electronic technologies through their eyes … it’s not just about data and information, it’s about having fun, being connected …
10. Never forget that electronic marketing is actually about people, not just technologies … with electronic technologies we are observing someone, contacting someone, interacting with someone … so think people first!

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Today while sitting in the sun reading the June edition of Psychologies Magazine I read an article titled ‘Why Mystery matters?’. It provides an interesting insight into Tanis Taylor view of the effect of constantly trying to control, survey, monitor, examine, plan and audit every minute, every moment and every action in our daily lives … what happens … we lose the mystery!

We can explain everything … or at least we try to!

One thing the growth of electronic technologies have most certainly done is developed a world where we try to explain everything … we live in an information age where we can access information at the click of a button if we can’t answer the ‘why’ question to our son or daughter, we Google it! If we feel out of date we subscribe! If we want to know what you are doing we follow you!

What of the Mystery in Marketing?

This is also true in marketing. Like what is happening in our everyday lives, in marketing we are also constantly focused on explaining everything, developing plans and strategies to remove uncertainty and control the impact and outcome of our marketing activities.

Why not just come up with a list of ideas and see what happens? Can you imagine that? Creative – Yes! Full of mystery – Yes! Would we be permitted to do this – NO!

This mindset of explaining and planning everything is further heightened by the impact electronic resources have and are having on marketing. We have at our finger tips a plethora of electronic resources that help us to collect data on those we regard as our markets – our customers, buyers, consumers – and with data comes a need to explore and profile that data.

Look at the Tesco Clubcard Scheme and the strategic analytical programme put in place by Dunnhumby, the people behind the scheme. They can identify from this data the type of household I live in, the type of lifestyle I lead and provide some explanation of my future purchase behaviour based on what I have purchased in the past!

Armed with this they already know what type of coupon or incentive to send me to intise me back into my local Tesco Extra. Great – marketing is becoming more accountable, measurable and …. my life more explainable!

But what of the mystery of people … marketing afterall has people at it’s centre .. the people who work in marketing and the people and communities to whom we market (or have a dialogue).

If we can measure and observe everything about people, than will this not result in us knowing everything about them?

In addition to the Tesco Clubcard Scheme, Tesco can also monitor your web behaviour what pages on their site you visit, what files your download, what purchases you make online. They can then merge this web usage data with your purchase data from their stores already they are starting to build a pretty good picture of who you are and how to reach you.

Oh and don’t forget your purchase fuel from their service stations, have your car insurance with them and have a Tesco-linked credit card! Are we getting the picture?

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So as new and differing resources are developed, they can be included. Therefore it’s underlying content coevolves with the changing landscape of marketing and technology.

The paper in which EMAM was first published, outlines five core marketing activities for which we use electronic resources in order to achieve our marketing objectives. These activities include, but may not be limited to:

• data & information acquisition and management
• information provision (1-to-many) and management
• communication (1-to-1 and many-to-many) and relationship management
• transaction conduct and management
• distribution and logistics management

EMAM: Page-Thomas (2005) Marketing Review,

Basically, electronic resources are having a profound impact on the environmental situation and community context within which we choose to compete.

However, for marketing management and planning, the implication lies not only in how our market responds to changing technological conditions, but also in how we as marketers respond.

The implications of electronic resources for marketing management are therefore not just in their existence or development, or even the presence of new ‘never been seen before’ features, but in how they are used to effectively and efficiently improve the management and implementation of marketing activities.

EMAM provides a framework upon which to further evolve how we view the managment and implementation of our electronic marketing activities.

Article Insights

• It shouldn’t be the technology that drives electronic marketing activities, but the business returns (marketing effectiveness and efficiency) from using electronic resources in marketing activities.
• Not all interactive marketing is electronic and not all electronic marketing is interactive.
• It is not sustainable to define marketing by the technologies, tools and channels we use to achieve marketing objectives (e.g., Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing), as these can be both quickly outdated in relevance and application. Is a very narrow, technological-specific view of electronic marketing.
• The marketing implication of electronic technology lies in how they are used to improve the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the management and the conduct of marketing activities. Electronic resources are helping marketers to more effectively and efficiently manage and conduct five core marketing activities (see above).

Sources

• Page-Thomas, K. L. (2005). Electronic Marketing: The Bigger Picture. Marketing Review, 5(3 (Autumn)), 243-262.
• Page (2009) Article insights: Electronic Marketing: The Bigger Picture, from CASE Insights (Published on: Issuu.com)

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EMAM or ‘Electronic Marketing Activity Management’ is a framework for looking at how electronic resources are being used in marketing activities to help us manage them.

This framework was developed with a differing mindset of marketing than is traditionally held by many. Here we see marketing as a dialogue with many participants and communities in order to create and deliver value.

In order to maintain this dialogue we have to participate in, coordinate and implement many activities and resources. So not so much as a mixer of ingredients, but as a node in a network of resources – be it people, technology, knowledge or time – and a network of activities.

In essence, marketing is rising in complexity as the many and differing electronic resources and activities we conduct and manage evolve.

Marketing is all about resources – people, technology, knowledge and time!

A really interesting article written by Grönroos, in (1996) noted that we are increasingly seeing a move towards a more resource-oriented approach to marketing.

This resource approach focuses on the management and planning of core competencies and resources, not just seeing the product as the core resource we are managing. He noted that this is what forms the basis and foundation for successful market relationships, and not just the facilitation of an exchange – a sale.

A resource-based view further places increased emphasis on marketing as a series of activities for fulfilling promises and delivering value, moving away from focusing on the product. Grönroos discussed four types of resources as key to marketing effectiveness and efficiency – personnel, technology, knowledge and time. With EMAM we focus on the use of technology resources in marketing.

Introducing EMAM!

So EMAM is a framework for looking at how electronic resources are being used and managed in marketing activities. This framework was introduced in a paper published in the Marketing Review in 2005. You can read our summary of the key article insights here.

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EMAM moves away from traditional frameworks of marketing (e.g., 4P’s and 7Ps) to focus on the resources and activities we as marketers manage and conduct in order to participate in an ongoing dialogue with the many participants and communities we coexist with, in order to create and deliver value.

One important thing to note though is that this framework is not structured around the specific technologies – the electronic resources themselves, but the activities that we use them for.

Given the rapid development of electronic resources marketers increasingly focus on specific technologies as and when they are popular and define their marketing activities by these (e.g., we need a web marketing strategy, an SMS marketing campaign, a social media marketing strategy).

This is a very myopic view and can become quickly outdated as the technology evolves. But this is not new behaviour in how we treat new innovations and their impact on our profession, it also occurred with newspapers, radio, TV in defining marketing by the innovation, not by what it can help us do better.

Sources

• Grönroos, C. (1994). Relationship marketing: Strategic and tactical implications. Management Decision, 34/3, 5-14.
• Page-Thomas, K. L. (2005). Electronic Marketing: The Bigger Picture. Marketing Review, 5(3 (Autumn)), 243-262.

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Traditionally, marketers were seen as a mixer of ingredients … well, this is how Culliton in (1948) from Harvard Business School, McCarthy in (1960) from Michigan State University and Borden in (1964), from Harvard Business School, viewed and wrote about what marketers do! In essence, they saw that we mix elements together to create marketing strategies, campaigns and specific activities to implement these.

Culliton in (1948) coined the phrase of a marketer as a ‘mixier of ingredients’ and then McCarthy (1960) and Borden (1964) devised a list of what these ingredients were from their observation of the industry. They developed a list of 12 areas and reduced these to 4 elements, which is now commonly known as the 4P’s or ‘Marketing Mix’ (Product, Price, Promotion, Place).

This was how the famous marketing mix was created. However it was the writings of leading authors such as Philip Kotler globally or more recently Frances Brassington & Stephen Pettitt in the UK who popularised it by structuring the early editions of their books around this framework. These books are distributed by Pearson Publishing on a mass scale to marketing educators, professional bodies and practitioners world wide.

So is it still relevant today?

Well, it still dominates many mindsets and attitudes in marketing education, marketing management and the strategic marketing planning process. However this framework is grounded in a mass marketing world and a transactional approach to marketing where the focus is the product, its features and the facilitation of an exchange – or a sale.

I think many agree this is no longer the world we live in! And as we have evolved, so too should the marketing frameworks we use, write about and teach.

Although is does still have some use today, it is clear that the marketing mix is not very well fitted or adaptive to the competitive position and changing marketing landscape emerging in most industries in the western world.

These changes include a rise in internationalisation, development of technologies influencing how we produce, talk about and deliver goods and services, from the transition from product-led to service-led economies and a focus on relationships and people more than a product offering and brand.

The development of the services mix, or the 7P’s of services marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Physical Evidence, Process & People) by Boom and Bitner in (1981) was one development to address the limitations of the marketing mix.

However like the marketing mix, the services marketing mix is still not well suited to the rising use of electronic resources in marketing and helping us to manage and implement these resources effectively.

In essence, marketing is rising in complexity, especially as the many differing electronic resources and activities we conduct and manage evolves. So perhaps we need a framework that focuses on resources and activities instead of a product offering?

Sources

• Booms, B.H., Bitner, M.J. (1981 ), “Marketing strategies and organization structures for service firms”, in Donnelly, J.H., George, W.R. (Eds), Marketing of Services, Conference Proceedings: American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp.47-51 .
• Borden, N. H. (1964). The concept of the marketing mix. Journal of Advertising Research, June, pp2-7.
• McCarthy, E. J. (1960). Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Homewood IL: Irwin

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The above quote from Plato provides a good foundation from which to begin this entry. The introduction of any written works, the start of any piece of performance – be it theatre, cinema, or even the birth of a new life is often championed to be a very important part of any life work.

It is from this from which we draw cues by which to define or classify the entity. From the cover of a book we determine if it is a fiction novel or biography. From the opening scenes of a performance, we infer if it is a comedy or musical? From the birth of a child we ask is it a boy or a girl?

I sometimes wonder, however if there really is such a thing as a beginning? Or does life and our experiences just continue to coevolve from one experience to the next in one long journey.

This post I hope is the first of many conversations about exploring and documenting marketing’s evolution through technology, however I am hesistant to call it the beginning.

Over the last 10 years (or maybe more), myself and colleagues in both industry and academe have been researching and documenting the adoption and use of electronic technology in marketing.

Observing, interviewing and writing about the impact electronic resources are having on marketing activities. So although this might be the first post on this blog for CASE Insights, it isn’t the beginning, but perhaps part of the journey.

CASE Insights is a research initiative that explores marketing’s evolution through technology and documents this journey through insights. This initiative is inspired not just by marketing and technologies themselves (although pretty cool!), it is inspired by a naturalist, a media philosopher and a group of artists!

• Charles Darwin, the naturalist and his studies about the diversity of life and his work the Origin of the Species
• Marshall McLuhan, the media philosopher and his work the Medium is the Massage about technology and societal meaning
• The Impressionists, the artists who used an innovative style to record contemporary life with new methods and techniques.

Each has provided an inspiration, although it is the love of technology and marketing practice that lies at the heart of CASE Insights.

The aim of this website www.caseinsights.com, is to share these insights and contribute to a wider dialogue about marketing’s evolution. Some writings here are current, some recent, while others are historical. The idea is to document marketing’s evolution through technology, be it to inform practice (or be informed), contribute to knowledge or educate tomorrow’s marketing professionals today.

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